ParentOn

There are hundreds and hundreds of different ways to define being a parent. Being a parent is conditional and relative to circumstance**.

At some point, every parent has a wobble. You consider whether or not you need to start saving up to pay for therapy for your kid when they become an adult. You worry about whether or not you’re doing the right thing. You worry whether or not they eat enough fruit and vegetables, or if they’re eating too much (yeah, some kids eat their fruit and vegetables and ask for more! GASP!)

Parent Guilt is a real thing; mom feels guilty because she didn’t breastfeed for long enough, or she didn’t use cloth diapers, or one day she lost her cool and shouted. Dad feels guilty because he doesn’t spend enough time at home and is always at work, or doesn’t do enough night feeds or bum changes, or one day dad loses his cool and shouts.

Do I read enough to my kids, do we do enough imaginative play, do I allow too much screen time, and so on. Parenting is hard. There is no right or wrong way (within reason) and at some point every parent thinks they aren’t doing a good job, or needs to improve in some way or another; and then there are days when parents think “YES! I got this. I am a parenting wonder today!” Its all relative.

As a parent, you go through a range of emotions. You’re proud, and you’re happy, and you’re worried. You get angry, and stressed. You give praise but you also feel awful for telling off. You laugh, you cry, you hide in the garden shed for 5 minutes at a time, despite the spiders, simply so you don’t have to share your bar of dairy milk. Going to the bathroom is a grand affair, its like an audience with a miniature royal, who watches you poop and then demands to see your poop and congratulates you on said poop and the fact that you flushed the toilet. God forbid you ever crap in private again. Then there’s sleep, or rather, lack of it.

As a parent you ask a lot of advice from your peers. There are conversations and debates (HA) and everyone has an opinion. You second guess yourself, you trust your gut instinct; and everything in between.

So when I got a surprise package from Tommee Tippee, I didn’t quite know what to expect. A blue box containing the “Complete Parenting Survival Kit”; containing everything I need for bringing up babies. What? What was in this little box? I was completely and utterly perplexed; especially as I wasn’t expecting anything in the mail.

When I opened it, I was blown away.

It was a mirror.

Tommee Tippee, reminding parents that all you need to survive as a parent, is YOU.

There was also a small USB key, a handheld mirror, a little flag and a leaflet.

There is no instruction manual for raising children. You don’t need to be a genius. Trust yourself; trust yourself that you’re doing a good job. Parents, You GOT THIS.

I was pleased as punch with my surprise, especially as it was PERSONALISED.

Tommee Tippee is one of the UKs leading baby brands, and has been going for 50 years now. Loved by babies and recommended by parents, and a household name in the UK; we’ve been a proud user (and blogger) of Tommee Tippee products. My parents used Tommee Tippee products too; and no doubt, when the time comes, generations after us, will continue to use Tommee Tippee as well.

** it took me a LONG time to compose this sentence, because my brain went dead (probably on account of lack of sleep) so massive, MASSIVE props to some of the lovely members of the SANP group who helped me out when I thought I was going mad trying to find a word that I have probably made up.